The chief characteristic demanded of golf balls is an increased distance, although other desired properties include the ability of the ball to stop well on approach shots and scuff resistance. Many golf balls endowed with a good flight on shots with a driver and a good receptivity to backspin on approach shots have hitherto been developed. In addition, golf ball cover materials possessing a high resilience and a good scuff resistance have been developed.
Today, urethane resin materials are often used in place of ionomer resin materials as the cover material, especially for professional golfers and skilled amateur golfers. However, professional golfers and skilled amateur golfers desire golf balls having even better controllability on approach shots, and so further improvement is sought even among cover materials in which a urethane resin material serves as the base resin. JP-A 2017-113220 discloses a golf ball resin material which includes, as a cover material that endows the ball with excellent controllability around the green when played with a short iron such as a sand wedge (SW) and can also extend the distance traveled by the ball on shots with a driver, a specific styrene-based thermoplastic elastomer and a thermoplastic resin having on the molecule either styrene monomer units or diene monomer units. Also, JP-A 2016-119946 discloses a resin material for golf balls that provides the ball with excellent controllability when hit around the green with a short iron such as a sand wedge.
However, even with such golf ball resin materials, it has not been possible to extend the ball distance by increasing the initial velocity on shots with a driver while also obtaining a high controllability by way reducing the initial velocity on approach shots. Hence, there remains room for further improvement in ball performance, both on shots with a driver and on approach shots.